Whether the change is stimulated by a personal vision for a better future, or it’s cascaded from above, it’s all about change.

The first challenge is to create a collective understanding of what is going to change. First, you’ll need to clarify the current way work gets done in your group. This is so you and the team will have a good understanding of the specifics that will be focused on regarding what has to change and what doesn’t have to change.

Remember, in the current state of operations, everything is stable and everybody feels good about their ability to do the job in an efficient and effective manner.

You are about to disrupt this equilibrium and create chaos!

2. Developing a solid understanding, and commitment, to the future state and how it’s different from the current state, is the next challenge for the leader and the team members. This is done to elicit energy and enthusiasm for the personal and collective changes that will be required in order to achieve the future state.

All the people on your team (including you) will be changing some of their daily work practices and habits that they are currently familiar with and feel safe and comfortable performing on a daily basis. Without their buy-in and commitment, their motivation to persevere and persist in learning new practices and personal habits for performance will quickly wane. The change will then transition back to the old way of working because they loose the future state vision for change, and their motivation for change diminishes with this lose.

This isn’t the end! It’s just the beginning!

Wow! Now we have engaged and committed people who are feeling challenged – what does the leader have to do to sustain the change?

This is worthy of another blog to discuss. Chad@cookconsulting.biz or 330-329-3137

Social rejection is hard in any setting, including at the office. When people feel excluded, they can’t be productive, innovative, or collaborative. As a manager you need to create a work environment that discourages rejection. Here’s how:

Prime the room for trust. To downplay hierarchies, start meetings by stating that all viewpoints are welcomed, desired and valued. This will ease fear of rejection and put people into a more collaborative and giving state of mind.

Start with a shared reality. Send agenda items out before a meeting or give team members an article to read – and ask them for input. This signals that you care about what they think.

Encourage candor and caring. Use open, non-judgmental language and listen with respect in all conversations. Thank people for sharing, and make sure that there are no negative repercussions for doing so.

Do something with their input. Provide feedback regarding the value and benefit of the input suggested or the lack thereof because it doesn’t align with business need. Ask for suggestions about how to best implement or act on their input or ideas. Encourage them to be involved with the execution or planning for the input.

Measure progress. Create a graph, timeline, milestone chart or some form of metric for tracking progress on ideas and projects. This reflects your interest for implementation and sustainability. If it is important for the business, it is important enough to follow.

The more you care about and demonstrate your interest in receiving input and support from your workgroup or team, the more they will respond as a partner and collaborate with you.

Let us know if you would like additional coaching with how to engage people in the workplace.

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Culture does not change because we desire to change it. Culture changes when the organization is transformed – the culture reflects the realities of people working together every day – Frances Hesselbein.